Having “Coffee with Paul” is about reading Scripture not only contextually and imaginatively, but also conversationally, as if over coffee with a New Testament author.
What is “Conversational” Reading?
We have used this phrase for several years to describe reading the Bible interactively, as if in a real conversation with someone. Most devotional books just have you read and move on. Or you might write a little. Most academic books dump mounds of detailed information on you all at once. But in our approach, reading “conversationally” is a methodical, step-by-step approach that strikes up a conversation between you and the text in front of you.
Video Basis
The following video provides a foundational look at some of what gave rise to the CWP Philosophy. The speaker is Gary Collier, and he gets a little excited at the end (but he’s passionate about this topic).
Click picture to start video (12.5 minutes):
It is important to remember that CWP Classroom is a work in progress.
Formal Summary
Coffee with Paul will directly tackle the documented rising tide of biblical illiteracy among Christians in North America and the world. Accepting the historic and continued value of traditional academic and devotional approaches, this project will focus on a gaping hole between the two, evidenced by the soaring problem of illiteracy. Much more than a series of “devotional books,” this study will argue for a new synthesis between academic and devotional approaches to Scripture, establishing new standards in what will be called, “Instructive Devotion,” and developing a specific “conversational” methodology for experiencing Scripture (as if having coffee with a New Testament author). Based on a new and fresh translation of what is likely the first written document of the New Testament (1 Thessalonians), a new-kind of daily resource for reading Scripture will be published (along with a “Conversation Journal”). Contextually responsible to both text and life, this new resource will be written in the first person, as if by the apostle Paul himself; will be grounded in a thorough understanding of academic discussions about Paul and his first letter; and will reflect an intimate knowledge of the layout of Paul’s sociological and geographic contexts—yet in conversational style, as if over coffee